******
- Verified Buyer
On opening the door to Bell House, you are met with the short, irresistibly daffy, Brian-Wilson-on-a-sugar-rush romp of “Miracle Gro,” with fingersnapped, a cappella harmonies caroming and crossing through a quick, canonical chorale about a seven-foot, indoor weed. In fact, the whole album leans quirky, with most songs made of more harmonies atop light, untreated guitar figures, while keys, bass, and drums are subtle afterthoughts, if not entirely absent. The themes trend millennial. “Basement” is a vignette on a musician with a wife, a dog, and a room below Mom and Dad. “Tragic Loss” is a morose musing done while passing headlights trace the bedroom ceiling. And yet, all 22:23 of Bell House’s ten songs sound … happy. It could be the major-chord structures or the earworm hooks, but I suspect it’s more just the joy of making music that drives Shy Boys’ two-minute flybys.
